Technology has always moved quickly, but the last couple of years have been different. Tools powered by artificial intelligence can write emails, mimic voices, generate images, and even hold conversations that feel surprisingly human. Most of this is helpful. Some of it is risky. And a small amount is being used by criminals to make scams look more convincing than ever.
Staying smart in this new era doesn’t mean becoming an expert. It means building a few habits that keep you one step ahead.
- Pause before trusting anything that looks “almost right”
AI makes it easy to generate messages that look professional, polite, and believable. That means scams no longer stand out with bad spelling or odd phrasing.
A good rule of thumb:
If something feels slightly off — a tone that doesn’t match the sender, a request that’s unusual, or a link that feels out of place — pause and verify it through another channel.
- Expect fake voices, fake faces, and fake urgency
Deepfake audio and video are becoming easier to produce. Criminals don’t need to be technical experts anymore; they just need a few seconds of someone’s voice.
Practical steps:
- Treat unexpected calls asking for money or access codes with caution.
- If someone claims to be a colleague or family member, call them back on a known number.
- Don’t rely on voice alone as proof of identity.
- Keep your “verification reflex” sharp
This is the most important skill in modern digital life.
A strong verification reflex means:
- Checking the sender before clicking.
- Hovering over links to see where they really go.
- Looking at the URL of any login or payment page.
- Being suspicious of urgency, pressure, or secrecy.
These small checks stop the majority of modern scams.
- Use AI as a tool, not a decision‑maker
AI can summarise, draft, and speed up tasks. But it doesn’t understand context, and it can be confidently wrong.
Smart use looks like:
- Letting AI help you think faster, not think for you.
- Asking it to explain its reasoning so you can sanity‑check it.
- Treating its output as a starting point, not a final answer.
- Keep your devices and accounts boringly secure
The basics still matter more than anything else:
- Strong, unique passwords usually 12 characters mixture of letters numbers and symbols, and use of pass phrases.
- A password manager.
- Two‑factor authentication.
- Regular updates and not just the standard as some updates can be hidden.
These simple steps protect you far more than any advanced tool.
- Stay curious, not fearful
AI isn’t something to panic about. Most of it is genuinely useful. The key is to stay aware of how criminals might use the same tools — and to build habits that make you harder to trick.
A little scepticism, a little patience, and a willingness to double‑check things will keep you safe in a world where technology is getting smarter every month.